“200 to 300 Underage Children Disappear Every Year”: The Dardens return to the movies with Tori and Lokita.

Presented at the Cannes competition for the ninth time, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne could mark the festival’s history by becoming the first filmmakers to win a third Palme d’Or. But that will be for another time because Tori and Lokita just got it “this” Prize for the 75th edition. An extra line in their record, those who have won almost every possible award on the Croisette.

In this twelfth feature film, the Belgian filmmakers follow two children from Africa, whose unwavering friendship helps them cope with the conditions of their exile and the hostile environment in which they grow up. Social cinema, of which the Dardens are still two masters. And the opus we were told about at Cannes.

AlloCiné: How are your projects coming along in general? Want to talk about the subject or characters? Or a story you see that inspires you?

Luke Darden : It depends. Lorna’s Silence, for example, is a news story turned into a moral fable. Rosetta is the result of various things in reality, especially at work, with a part of invention. As for Tori and Lokita, we obviously have the same information as anyone who wants to find out and who can, about the existence of young displaced minors. Like those who disappear and can never be found.

There are those who manage to go to England or elsewhere. But others disappear because they kill, kill, and no one claims their bodies because they have no family. You have similar information and so do we. It was already in “Unknown Girl” with this woman who we find by the water and who is African, but there is also this story that we have been trying to tell for about ten years: the story of the family.

We are not talking about a real family here, but we were inspired by one whose daughter is named Lokita. When we talked about this story again, heard from psychiatrists and re-read the files that we already knew a little about, we saw that the greatest suffering among displaced minors is loneliness. To be alone and abandoned, in a partially hostile environment, without any reference to childhood, be it parents, friends, brothers or sisters. And this is where the idea of ​​a friendship story came to us.

We then wanted to build our story around that “To be together or not to be together”. That people can be separated, but this separation is unbearable. It was from this engine that the story was built. Then there was the idea of ​​having a very young child with a girl who is going to get papers – or not – and who is about 17 years old. So we were looking for a duet à la Laurel and Hardy, without the comic side, but with the idea of ​​big and small, and we worked on a duet that we’ve never done before.

The greatest suffering among minors in exile is loneliness

In addition to the files you referred to, were you able to meet people in the same situation as Tori and Lokita to understand their experiences?

Jean-Pierre Darden : No. With leaders, managers, teachers, yes. We saw them in the centers we went to, but we didn’t want to talk to them because…

Luke Darden: We have no legitimacy!

Jean-Pierre Dardin: We have no legitimacy to question them. For us, what we read elsewhere or the stories we were told was enough. Because, in a way, we are a little alike. But there are trials that some like and others don’t. So we thought we could imagine how things would turn out. And what led us in the history of these heroes, that one has to have his works, and the other helps him. And together they invent the story of family, siblings.

And how to allow these siblings, at the same time, to allow him to have his papers and help them connect and fall in love with their daily lives. Because they have fun too. They laugh even when there are difficult moments. We thought that was enough and that’s why we didn’t meet people in the same situation. I don’t know the exact figure anymore, so I’m doing a little bit, but it was still huge: we heard it on RTBF one day that 200 to 300 minor children disappear every year.

This does not mean that they die. We just don’t know where they are. Some may have reached England, but others have disappeared. Each year. This is madness! Beyond the story that lived inside us, our main concern was to find a way to put these children at the center and make them not people we feel sorry for, but people who struggle, who want to live and help each other. And who found a model of resistance to the hostility of their environment.

What did the duo’s storytelling change for you in terms of writing and directing?

Luke Darden: When we create scenes and write stage directions, we envision movements. And since there are two characters, we ask ourselves several questions, namely: is it stationary or mobile? If they move, then we have to think about whether they will both be in the frame and whether we will be able to keep them. We try to imagine their movements, even if it comes alive during rehearsals.

For example, in the scene where they sing together, we see him go to take the microphone and we see him when he comes back. He’s alone, you can see that, and the biggest moment is when they sing together. We don’t wander around the room, we stay with them, sing and look at each other. There is a great deal of complicity that arises and suggests that they may be siblings. The image of cinema makes us believe so anyway. The fact that they were photographed together had to conflict with the fact that they were alone. Since they are about to break up, they want to reunite.

This is how we thought about our duet plans, compared to the moments of solitude. And we tried several types of plans when they are together. Like when they have the idea to take the drugs from the bouncer: we chose to have them together, the bag in the middle. These are the little ideas we come across especially during rehearsals with our video camera. Then the operator may also have ideas to which we are obviously not closed. We don’t claim to have found everything in rehearsals.

For the first time, we were going to work with two young actors who were going to be at the center of the film, when neither of them had acted.

Directing a duo must have made the casting difficult as well, I imagine? Because it was necessary to find two actors who were good separately and went well together.

Jean-Pierre Dardin: Yes, because we’ve never seen one without the other. Even when we saw one and didn’t yet know who you’d pick for the other. We started with Lokita So it was pretty quick. We noticed it from the second working session, but we still saw others so that we would not have regrets and did not choose too quickly. But we chose this, even if we did not shape it so as not to lock it.

There are revealing things that let us know if it will be possible to work with someone. These are physical things, but there is something difficult: when you pick up a cell phone and talk to an imaginary character without someone. He was given text, a simplified version of the scene with his mother, explaining that we, as viewers, were supposed to have the impression that he was talking to someone, when he never had in his life.

We did this a few times and had the feeling that it could be better, but also that he had enough focus to make us believe he was talking to someone. He was also asked to sing. And it was the same for the baby, but it took longer to find him. Since he was tall, we knew he had to be short, especially compared to the things he had to do in the movie, like hiding in a car. It could not have been a 1m55 or 1m60 child.

Luke Darden: Especially in current cars where you can’t go through the passenger compartment anymore, it would stay in the trunk. (laughs)

Jean-Pierre Dardin: It also took time because even if it wasn’t too bad, they were too expectant, a bit melancholic, a bit too closed off, not dynamic enough… But we kept going and finally met little Pablo. , who lives next door for most of the film. We found him inventive, responsive to requests, with a good memory. You quickly sense when being there is someone you’re going to work with, someone who will bring life to the character. And for the first time we were going to work with two young actors who were going to be at the center of the film, although neither of them had ever acted.

Every time a teenager played with us for the first time, he had an adult as his partner. There are two of them, and we also had to find a balance to have both of them coexist without being directive, but with enough guidance to give it confidence. Pablo is very physical. They are both, by the way. And they quickly believed in us and saw that, like them, we were watching. At first, they thought that we would say everything, that everything would come. But no, and it was through repetition that we found it.

Interview by Maximilien Pierret in Cannes, May 26, 2022